For years, there has been a leaky faucet of information coming out of the San Francisco 49ers’ front office, and Chip Kelly has a good idea who’s been doing all the sprinkling.
According to Jay Glazer of FOX Sports, who spoke with Kelly, former general manager Trent Baalke has been working behind the scenes to undermine the former head coach.
“For weeks and weeks and weeks, he’s known that Trent Baalke has been trying to undermine him and get him out,” Glazer said (h/t Pro Football Talk).
Kelly also told Glazer that he’ll be happy to coach as an assistant in the NFL, saying, “I’ll go be an offensive coordinator somewhere.”
Baalke has been the source of much discontent in the Bay Area since back in 2013 when rumors started to surface that he and Jim Harbaugh weren’t getting along. Those rumors turned into fact when it was Harbaugh, not Baalke, who was forced out of the organization after resurrecting the franchise to heights unseen since the 1990s.
A defensive-minded general manager, Baalke struck out time and time again when it came to drafting star offensive players. He even admitted this year that he was to blame for the organization’s deficit at the quarterback position. It was reported that Baalke shot down the idea of drafting Dak Prescott this past year when Kelly wanted the now-famous quarterback. That was just one of many blunders that got him eventually fired.